No shame in high school dress code protest

Published 5:41 pm, Thursday, May 30, 2013

A demonstration of civil disobedience at Greenwich High School on Tuesday offered several potential lessons for students as well as faculty, well beyond the walls of the state's largest public high school.

Sisters Grace and Patrice DiChristina mobilized opposition to the school's dress code by inviting friends via Facebook to wear white T-shirts proclaiming "GHS body shames." About 60 students wore the shirts, a response to Patrice being admonished by three faculty members that her May 20 outfit of choice was not appropriate.

To their credit, the sisters declared their opposition with poise. If you disagree, consider that they might instead have encouraged their peers to wear outfits in gross violation of the dress code. But they were wiser than that, and rewarded with a pledge to continue a discussion about the school's policy. Clearly, they have learned something about methods of expression and protest.

Their defense also suggests they have learned a thing or two about the art of rhetoric. It was crafty of them to hint that the policy was sexist because male students get away with displaying offensive messages on their clothing. They still have lessons to learn on this front, however. Pointing to peers committing more serious violations is an immature defense (two wrongs, blah, blah, blah) that never holds up in the court of public opinion, let alone the principal's office.

Grace and Patrice are not the first students to protest that school dress codes are not keeping up with the times. A decade ago, Stamford Public Schools began enforcing a rule that students could only wear head covering for religious reasons. Scarves, bandannas and other types of headgear were banned, in part to discourage gang garb. More recently, in 2010, Stamford NAACP President Jack Bryant lobbied for the return of uniforms in the city's public middle and high schools, arguing that students should focus on education, not fashion. In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of students wearing uniforms in public high schools across the country.

In protesting the Greenwich policy, Grace argued that "the main part we have an issue with is that it is up to the staff's discretion about what's inappropriate, because everyone has different ideas of what's appropriate."

The sisters deserve credit for inspiring GHS Principal Chris Winters to invite them to meet, where they will be able to present their argument that the policy be reconsidered by a new committee of staff and students.

Winters deserves kudos as well for remaining open-minded about the protest, while being clear that the policy is simply about dressing appropriately for a school environment.

That is the biggest lesson the students still need to learn. Like it or not, one of the core missions of the classroom is to prepare pupils for the world they face after graduation. Clearly, few workplaces would recognize a dress policy that reflects the fashion aesthetic of most high school students.